Ask the Stars & You Shall Receive
by StarryFire14
Summary: My request piece! I need a pallet cleanser between all the crazy deep stuff, so if you've been looking for a one-shot of a ship you can't find or you can't find enough of? Drop a review or shoot me a PM to request it! If you don't give me a word prompt I'll be using a list of prompts from another site to fill. Desna owns the Pradesh Family, Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail.
1. Chapter 1

Hello! A fan of my CoLu week gave me an idea... You all have ideas. And thoughts. And favorite ships. And I could use a prompt or two to play with! So - here we are. Make a request in the reviews or PM me, give me a couple days, and I'll have it ready for ya :)

I love you all and I hope you participate!

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Pradesh Family - Desna does. I don't own Fairy Tail either, that's Mashima's brainchild. My stories are all beta-ed by GoddessxNyte22/RoguexNyte, sometimes by Redfoxed too. **

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Request Index:

CH 2: CoLu Cupcakes - FINISHED & POSTED

CH 3: VanLu (list prompt 1: Regret) - FINISHED & POSTED

CH 4: VanLu Necropolis - FINISHED & POSTED

CH 5: VanLu Misleadingly Deep Puddle - IN PROGRESS

CH 6: Vaxus Shocking - IN PROGRESS

CH 7: Bivy Broken Ankle - Queued

CH 8: CrisLu (list prompt 2: Fulfilled) - Queued

CH 9: BixLu (list prompt 3: Family) - Queued

Ch 10: KaLu (list prompt 4: Obsession) - Queued

CH 11: Freed/Lu Bookloving - Queued

CH 12: FareLu (list prompt 5: Tested) - Queued

CH 13: VanLu (list prompt 6: Overcome) - Queued

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This work is officially posted on both Archive and FFnet. I'm trying to put the works in the correct order, but who knows if I'm even getting that right… lol

Thank you so much, those that are participating by giving me ideas. I'm really excited for the challenge some of these are going to be. :) Keep requests coming, it's gonna take a few days to get through them all but I'm determined not to let any sit for too long.

If you want to know where I'm getting the other random prompts (the ones not fan-generated) then check out this list of 300 one-word prompts on .com. It's actually super helpful and they are all pretty engaging when you have a story to apply them to.

You guys are the best!


	2. CoLu Cupcakes

**Disclaimer: Desna owns the Pradesh Characters, Mashima owns Fairy Tail, GoddessxNyte2 reviews everything because she's amazing.**

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_CoLu Cupcakes_

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There were, quite honestly, dozens of reasons why one should not break into the home of one Lucy Heartfilia. Chief among them was the risk of a Lucy kick to the face. Or the groin. It just depended on her mood, really.

Unfortunately for Lucy - and really, everyone else, too - no one seemed to understand this fact. Her house might as well be a prison, for the sheer number of home invaders it held on a regular basis.

Erza liked to kick in the door. For how _dare_ said inanimate object stand between her and Lucy's strawberry stash?

Gray, for some reason, still used her fucking fire place. And honestly no one quite understood how, not even Juvia who has spied on him doing it countless times.

Laxus - who only stopped by to either lecture her about training or lecture her about controlling her team - tended to just break her lock. Sometimes the door frame as well.

Freed was the only one who never caused damage, though it was still a break in. Lucy loved when Freed broke in. The only reason she knew he did it was because he's always leave a book on her kitchen table with a little note on top summarizing it and encouraging her to read it herself. He'd told her he had runes to pick the lock, when she asked him about it. She'd then offered to have him a key made, because in her book (heh, books) he was allowed to drop in any time, and he'd looked at her as if she'd simultaneously grown a third head and stripped naked. Embarrassed but shocked.

"Miss Lucy," he'd said in his most pretentious voice ever, "that would be… highly inappropriate."

Natsu was surprisingly, not the biggest culprit. Sure, he did it frequently, and was the only one who did it consistently when she was sleeping, but if Lucy were to tally the instances up, Cana took the cake.

And this most recent time?

She literally took the cake.

"OH thank Mavis you answered. Cana took the cupcakes from my house and they were almost definitely - oh fuck it, the _were _definitely poisoned - and sheatethem and sharedthemwiththeguild I don't know what to do now but can you getherebeforesomeonedies?"

"Holy tits, Tinkerbell. Slow the fuck down. Maybe try running that by me again?" Cobra spoke to the com in his hand, glaring at the blonde on the other side of it. It was so aggravating trying to decipher her panic speak when he couldn't just listen to her soul for the answer.

Lucy took a steadying breath and refocused, "Ah, yeah, sorry. Cana broke in to use the bath but she saw the cupcakes I was making and took them to the guild to share. Which I can normally handle on my own, but the thing is, I poisoned those cupcakes, and now half the guild is gonna die if you don't come help me pull the poison out of them. Nix is helping but he is terrible with poison."

"Bright Eyes… how the fuck do you get yourselves into these situations? Don't you lock your door? And why did you make poison cupcakes, anyway?"

She glared at him and cut the connection.

Rolling his eye, he called her back, "Why would you hang up on me if you need my help?"

"...I'll figure something out."

Another eye roll, "I'll be there soon, just don't let anybody die," he said, then cut the connection himself, "Heya Blueberry Prostitute No. 2, I gotta head back to Magnolia. Apparently Tink poisoned everyone."

"What?!"

-:-:-:-

Crime Sorciere had, thankfully, been relatively close to Magnolia and were able to make it in time to avoid disaster. Much to Cobra's delight, the poison had been havarti venom, though where the fuck the celestial mage had gotten it, and why she made cupcakes with it, was beyond him. She wasn't the type to poison her enemies - if she was mad enough to want them dead, she'd do it with her bare hands. Most likely cackling like a lunatic the whole time.

She actually hadn't been there when they arrived, much to Cobra's annoyance. Her stupid flirty spirit Nix - the phoenix spirit - was there staving off the effects of the poison until it could be cleansed from the Fairy Tail mages, but she was no where in sight. It was a good thing there was quality poison at hand or he would have been extremely ticked. As it was, he was only mildly so.

So when he finished up, he headed to her place.

Only to find the door locked.

"Damnit, Tink, I can hear you in there. You'd better open this fucking door."

It took a few minutes, but finally she complied, and when he caught sight of her embarrassed face, he was confused.

"Why do you look embarrassed?"

"...Shut up," she turned away from him, silently hiding her face behind her hands and walking to sit on the couch.

Oh, he was doomed. His girlfriend was a lot of things, but silent? That was not one of them. The few times she had been silent, it was as a precursor to Scary Lucy (who was very fucking real, and the difference between Scary Lucy's soul and Real Lucy's soul was fucking real, too. And terrifying), one final chance to save yourself from her wrath before she went absolutely postal.

"Lucy," he spoke, shamelessly pandering to the fact that she enjoyed her own name on his lips, "What's wrong…?"

She looked up and glared at him, "It was for you, dumbass."

He raised an eyebrow, "You poisoned your guild for me? Bright Eyes, I fucking love that, but that's not normally your style."

She threw her com lacrima at him and huffed, looking away again, "The cupcakes, Jackass. I made cupcakes for you. Why else would I poison perfectly good chocolate?"

Understanding dawned on him, and he felt like an idiot, "...oh." Very smooth.

Still, though, her lack of cupcakes and nearly killing her guildmates wasn't all that odd, all things considered. And she was tough as hell. He wasn't quite sure why she was so upset.

Wait…

He sniffed the air. Looked around the apartment. His general investigation complete, he came to a conclusion, one he was terrified to voice aloud. But he had to.

"Tink, be honest with me… are you on your period right now?"

The glare he received for that was chill-inducing.

"...yes."

"...is," he gulped, but pressed on, "is that… maybe…. Why you're so upset about this? It's… not all that different than what normally happens in your fucked up guild."

She sighed, but it was more of a growl, "No, goddamnit. I'm allowed to be upset when I'm on my period and it not be my period's fault, Erik!"

He approached her cautiously, "If I brought you ice cream…. Would you feel less upset?"

She sniffled. Fuck, she was on the verge of tears and goddamn it did he hate that. If he could find mother nature he'd kick her ass for making his tough as nails, badass girlfriend into this sad, emotional creature in front of him.

"Y-yeah," she gave him a tiny smile, "I think it would," she rubbed her temples, "So I guess that means you're probably right. I'm an emotional mess. If I could beat the shit out of mother nature I'd do it."

He grinned at her, glad to have her partially back, and leaned down for a lingering kiss, cupping her face. She sighed into him.

"Alright, Cupcake, I'm gonna get some ice cream. I'm in town for a week, so you sit that pretty ass down right there and get ready. We are about to watch a whole fucking marathon of scary lacrima-movies."

She sighed dramatically and flopped back on the couch cushions, "I just got a new nickname, didn't I?"


	3. VanLu Regret

**Disclaimer: Desna owns the Pradesh Characters, Mashima owns Fairy Tail, GoddessxNyte2 reviews everything because she's amazing.**

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_VanLu Regret_

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If there was one thing Vander Pradesh didn't do, it was regret...anything really. He just didn't live that way. You do what you do, you live with it, and you move the fuck on.

When you've worked for the shadiest organization in the country, doing shit you know is wrong, that you would never do if you had a choice… it was either that, or drown yourself in guilt. And Vander loved life too much to do the latter. Consciously, anyway, he wasn't stupid - he knew the things he'd done had taken a toll on him. He just refused to dwell on it.

He was so glad that a certain blonde had come into his life and just… fixed it. His 'job' and the constant threats to his family that had kept him doing it for years. The darkness in him that he'd been struggling to control - the voids were a cruel, powerful place, after all. His brother Bix, he'd told him that her bright, beautifully golden soul had swept right in and grounded his own, healed the fraying pieces and setting him right again. Just one more thing to add to the growing pile of things in his life that she'd corrected.

It was odd, really, how that same beautiful blonde celestial mage would also be the first person to make him actively and consciously feel true remorse. A regret so intense that he barely recognized it.

And she'd done so nearly effortlessly, over something so minor it was almost comical.

Seeing the rage in her eyes, he admitted, if only to himself, that the comedy was totally lost behind the intense level of _terrifying_ she put off in that moment.

Scary Lucy, indeed. He'd thought it was a myth.

He'd been very, very wrong.

"Mia Stella…" he called out, his voice smooth and husky. He knew she loved his voice, she always had, "Calm down…"

The voice didn't work, "What the fuck do you _mean, _calm down? Look at my _hair_!"

He was looking, and it took _everything _he had to keep from laughing. Because his lovely, wonderful, amazing wife and mother of his two cats, had bright purple hair. Bright purple, _sparkly_ hair. And was also scheduled to speak at a symposium at the Academe in about 20 minutes. A speech she'd been working on for nearly three months.

In his defense, he had been out on an inter-guild mission with Bickslow and his team for all three of those months, and had been expected to be out with them for another two, so while he'd known _of _ the big speech she'd prepared on summoning and the relationships between spirit and mage, he'd never known what day it was.

It was just a coincidence that he'd pranked her on the exact worst day to do so.

Still, she was being a bit irrational. Cancer could fix it in three seconds, she could just call him out and be on her way, so why she was giving him that death glare, he didn't really know. She was normally more rational than this…

"My love, my starlight, why don't you just… have Cancer fix it?"

She, for the first time in _years_, started losing grip of her tight control on her magic power. And that, right there, was the moment he felt it. Regret. Because his wife, the woman who had tamed the untameable Vander Pradesh, sex god extraordinaire - also just happened to be scary as shit. And while it was hot, he much preferred watching her lose her proverbial shit on everyone else to experiencing her wrath personally. Especially when that person was her best friend. Watching her berate Natsu was one of his favorite pastimes.

"I. Fucking. Can't. It's his day off!"

Oh. Shit. Oh shit. He started to back away slowly, holding his hands in the air. If she got any more worked up, he was out. Jumping into the voids, expectations of a supportive husband be damned.

Thank the heavens above, literally, that Virgo saved the day. She popped out of her gate, expressionless, and handed Lucy a wig that was an exact replica of what her hair should be.

Lucy's relieved tears, oddly enough, made him feel the stirrings of that pesky little emotion again. Regret. He hated seeing her upset. She had a tough skin, so his jokes had never been the cause before. Her magic now calm, he approached her slowly, and pulled her into a warm embrace, "I'm sorry, love. I didn't think…"

She sniffled, getting a hold of herself, "It's okay… I'm just so stressed out. What if they hate me? I keep thinking they will. Or they'll ask a question I don't know the answer to. Or they will be so unimpressed with me that they will give up on celestial magic altogether, and we've worked _so hard _to recruit mages and rebuild the magic now that Stache Face has fixed those fucked up laws… And then with the hair, I just-"

"Shhh. Stella, you're overthinking this. One - your hair will look perfect. Even if it didn't, there is no one on this earth more beautiful than you, purple glittery hair and all," he pulled back to smirk at her and ruffle it, "Two, there is literally not a single question on celestial magic that you don't know the answer to. And three, no one can hate you, unless they are just jealous."

Sighing, she nodded. Pulling fully away, she recovered herself as Virgo fixed the wig to her head. As always, Virgo's solutions were flawless, and it looked as if nothing was wrong. She smiled in the mirror.

"Oh, Van?"

"Yeah, what's up, Mia Belle Stella?"

She shot him a glare so scathing he nearly flinched, "Don't think that I won't get retribution for this."

Fuck. As he watched her step through her gate and into the Academe - a skill she'd worked to develop over the last decade and had finally mastered last year - he knew he had to fix it. Or he would have major, major problems.

-:-:-:-

Lucy was mid-speech when she saw it, and it took everything she had not to grin like a fool. Because there, in the middle of the crowd, was her stupidly frustrating husband, who sported a full head of purple, sparkly hair for the whole world to see.

She'd let him live another day, she decided, observing him while continuing her presentation. They'd been apart for three months, as it was. She supposed his version of an apology would have to do, because there was no way she was going to stay mad at him when they crawled into bed that night.

Stars, how she loved that infuriating man.


	4. VanLu Necropolis

**Dear Readers,**

**I don't know with this one. My brain just kind of exploded.**

**Let me know what you think, though. If you like it I pull this into a multi-chapter.**

**Reminder: Desna owns the Pradesh Family, Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail. **

**Gonna shout out to Redfoxed, because the first few chapters of To Set The Caged Bird Free inspired the random direction I took this in. Another shout to my awesome beta, GoddessxNyte2, who reads my stories just as fast as I write them - something I'm incredibly grateful for.**

**Enjoy!**

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It was commonly believed that the expanse of land to the Northeast Ishgar, past Peregrande, was undiscovered land. Uninhabited and rarely explored, dangerous.

Lucy knew better.

Her spirits were older than anyone could ever fully grasp, the number just too staggering for human comprehension. Even hers. And the day they'd told her of what it used to be was the day she packed everything she had away with Virgo in the celestial world, packed her own small bag, and took off without a word.

She was sure Natsu would be trailing after her, but… things are different between them now. He was different, and he was a parent now (fucking weird as that was) so it was a good thing he'd stayed behind. She wasn't even sure he noticed she was gone. Erza, she was sure, would have stopped her from leaving, or tried to, that's why she didn't tell her. She'd been able to avoid it pretty easily, too, because Erza spent more time with Crime Sorciere these days than she spent with her own guild. Gray, he was probably livid. If she was honest, he was probably the only one who'd noticed her absence right away, but she was sure Cana would easily coax her broody boyfriend into a drinking contest to distract him. She always did, these days.

And maybe that's why she'd done it, if she were being honest with herself. Sure, she owed it to herself to find the answers she'd been promised were at the end of this impromptu quest she'd taken, but nobody had told her she needed to do it alone. Not even the Spirit King, and that guy was notoriously frustrating when it came to Lucy withholding information from her human family.

But… she'd thought about telling them, and as much as she hated to admit it… with each face that popped into her mind, every person she was going to recruit to come along, she realized - maybe for the first time - that the rest of them had moved on. Without her. Creating families of their own, forsaking the one they'd built together. The only one she had left.

She didn't blame them, not really. How could she be mad about them finding happiness? The answer was simple, she couldn't. But she was bitter, she knew that. And so she'd taken off on her own. Half to actually complete the quest she'd been given by the celestial realm, the other half… to see if anyone would care if she was gone.

Three months in, and she was pretty sure she knew the answer. No, they didn't care that she was gone.

She made it through Bosco without much trouble. She'd heard Bickslow's family was from there, and were members of the White Sea guild, so in order to avoid trouble, she'd avoided that guild like the plague. The last thing she needed was the famous wizard saint, Kaleb Pradesh, calling up her own wizard saint guildmaster to see why she was out-of-country. Shit, she really didn't need him calling up Fiore's Magic Council either, to see why one of their own wizard saints was in another country without having first notified them of her intentions to travel.

She rolled her eyes. The wizard saint pin on her cloak was a fucking joke. She'd earned it, sure. She'd worked tremendously hard to do so, and the day they announced her status to the rest of the country was one of the proudest moments of her life. Now, though. Now all she could do was question how she'd missed the fact that every moment she wasted training harder than the last, she was moving further and further away from her team. Her family.

Even more than that, how had she never noticed that she had essentially given up on having a family of her own because of the sacrifices she made to get stronger? How, with every passing year of her disregarding romance, or even close friendships outside of Fairy Tail, she was pushing any personal goals to the side in favor of her professional ones. She should have noticed the toll it took when she considered how very similar Laxus's situation was.

She stopped in her tracks and rubbed her temples. Lucy was about halfway through Stella, and she finally decided she could take a break. She took in the view of the lights in the distance, marking the presence of a small town, and she decided she'd go stay there for the night.

-:-:-:-

"She's fine, Laxus. Don't know why you have me tailing a wizard saint, anyway. From what I hear, Lucy Heartfilia can handle herself."

The blonde mage on the other side of the com scowled back at the man, "Look, I can tell you, because I am one. Being a wizard saint doesn't mean shit. You can be the most powerful person on the goddamn planet, but if you're distracted at the wrong moment? You're just as dead as the next guy. And Blondie's distracted as shit, has been for a while. Just keep an eye out, alright?"

Vander smirked, "Who am I to say no? My eyes like the look of her anyway."

He saw a few sparks escape Laxus before he ended the connection. He stowed the communication lacrima away, laughing, before making his way into a small Stellan town to book a room close to the world's most famous celestial mage.

-:-:-:-

The sword pressed against his throat was far from comfortable, and if he wasn't also pressed against a wall he would have backed away from the angry blonde woman in front of him.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing? You've been following me, and I want to know why," She pressed the blade just a _tiny _bit further forward.

'_Distracted, my ass,' _Vander thought to himself.

He hadn't answered, still too busy cursing Laxus in his head. When he noticed the anger in her eyes increase, he decided it was time to get the fuck out from under her blade. Disappearing into the voids, he escaped her hold, only to reappear on her other side leaning casually against the brick wall of the alley they'd found themselves in, rubbing at his neck.

"Fuck. Gotta admit that's pretty intimidating, Starlight."

She glared at him, leveling her sword at his face in a move oddly reminiscent of one Erza Scarlet. He sighed, pressing a single finger to the flat of her blade and pushing it gently to the side. She allowed the movement, but eyed him skeptically, "Well?"

"Mr. Thunder God, Fourth Wizard Saint of Fiore, and apparently stupidly overly concerned guildmaster, sent me to follow you. Make sure you don't get killed."

She furrowed her brows, "What? Why? I can take care of myself. How did you even find me?"

Vander shrugged, "Yeah. I agree, you can probably take care of yourself, but he told me he was concerned you may be… _distracted,_" he gestured at her, "though obviously not distracted enough to be in danger," he smirked, "Oh, and I found you because White Sea has the best energy mage in all of Ishgar. According to Presca, your magic signature is pretty unique. Easy to follow. Once he led me to you, I just followed."

Lucy dropped her sword and her stardress all at once, and sighed, "Stupid fucking blonde…" she muttered under her breath. Leave it to Laxus to go all fatherly on her when he became guildmaster. Though… secretly… she was glad he'd at least noticed she was gone. She fought a smile at display of concern.

"You said White Sea? You know Bickslow's brothers, then?"

He laughed at her, eyeing up her less than conservative outfit, "Oh, you could say that."

She felt heat rising to her cheeks at the attention he was not-so-subtly directing at her form, but all she did was raise an eyebrow in question.

"I am one of his brothers, Mia Stella. Vander Pradesh, nice to meet you," and he took her hand in his own and placed a soft kiss on her guildmark.

-:-:-:-

That day, Lucy never found the will to send Vander away, and he had no intention of leaving her alone in Peregrande (Zen would probably fucking kill him for a stunt like that, anyway - he had a thing about celestial mages and them not being in danger - and the guy had well-justified reasons to hate Peregrande). So they spent the next several months sneaking in, out, and around Peregrandian cities together, until they made it to the misogynistic country's northern border.

Lucy discovered that Van was… tremendously fun. In a dangerous sort of way. And they discovered their mutual disgust for the ways of the nation led to… interesting side effects. They were a powerful team and once they'd discovered how effective they could be together, their strategy for making it through the nation changed somewhat. Or completely.

They'd never really intended it to happen, not when they first started travelling together. They'd initially planned to stay hidden completely, keep their heads down, but instead they had sort of… liberated their way through the country. They didn't leave any city they came across with slaves still in it. It was a dangerous game, and if they were found out, probably Fiore and Bosco would have to answer for some kind of espionage claim. Hell, maybe the nation would declare war, but they couldn't bring themselves to care.

Besides, the number of soldiers they had was reduced now. Significantly.

"So what's the plan here, Mia Stella?" Vander whispered quietly to her as they stood in the shadows, observing the guard setup on the Peregrandian Border.

"Well," she considered, analyzing them closely, "Probably wouldn't be any kind of issue getting out. They seem more concerned with keeping things from entering the country. Paranoia, more than anything," she scoffed, "There's nothing out there but wildlife. Well. Anymore, anyway."

She got quiet, and Van went from studying their surrounding to studying her face, "You sure you don't want to tell me what we are after?"

Lucy shook her head, "Nah, I'm good. My recommendation is… total annihilation, by the way," she pointed to the edge of the guard compound, to cages there, "Slaves."

He nodded, pointing to where one slave had been dragged off about a hundred yards from where Lucy had pointed, "Looks like they are here for more than just labor, too," he stated, grimly watching as a bulky guard tied down a smaller slave and started unbuckling his pants.

Lucy hissed, "That one's mine," and she disappeared in a flash of light, reappearing through her gate right next to the vile guard and stabbing him in the throat with Caelum, the chisel spirit. Vander watched with grim amusement, thinking he'd never witnessed someone so fierce in all his life. Not even Emi (not that he would ever tell his sister that, lest he face her wrath).

He disappeared into the voids to jump into the fray with his Starlight.

-:-:-:-

A year. A whole year, it had been, since that last epic battle in Peregrande, before they'd set off into the 'unknown'. Well, for Vander it was unknown. Lucy, and her spirits, they knew the place. Still, she'd not told him what they were after.

They heard news through Loke that Peregrande had, in fact, attempted to start a war with Fiore over the fact that one of their Wizard Saints had just up and decided to launch an assault campaign on the country, but they hadn't made a single attack before the entire might of Fairy Tail and White Sea, along with Fiore's Rune Knights and Bosco's Knights of Immaculate Light, effectively crushed them into dust. Vander had gotten an earful from his father, and Farron... and Kaleb, but he could tell from the way they lectured him that they weren't in the least bit disappointed with his actions.

Lucy would have likely heard from both her guildmaster and the council, but she'd wisely ignored them completely.

"We're almost there, Van," Lucy whispered. She sounded more vulnerable than she ever had before. He placed a hand on her shoulder, squeezing lightly in a comforting gesture.

"You know, we can always forget this whole thing and go to Bosco. I hear the bath-houses calling your name."

She elbowed him in the side and pushed forward, "You're just frustrated because there's no one to add to our sexcapades out here in the middle of nowhere," she said lightly, but he heard the small twinge of insecurity in her voice.

"Stella, listen to me," he said, turning her around, "You know you're all I'll ever need. Don't tell anyone though, it'll ruin my rep."

She giggled.

"But I'm not gonna say adding another wouldn't be a fun activity," he added, winking at her.

They'd finally transformed their comrades-in-arms relationship into one more romantic about six months ago. The tension had always been there, really, but Lucy was hesitant. She wasn't interested in more than sex, she knew he wasn't either, he was Boscan, but… something about him made her crave more. And she didn't _want _to crave more. Especially not with Vander Pradesh, the one man in all of Bosco that was _known_ for his sexual prowess in a country where sexual prowess was pretty much an art form.

His 'one night' rule was pretty well established too, Bixy had mentioned it to her several times over the years, and the last thing she wanted was to start something with him that would just lead to her getting her heart broken.

The night they'd finally given in, and Van had admitted to her that he saw her as potentially more than a one-night encounter (while at the same time warning her he didn't fucking know _how _to do more than a one-night encounter), they'd woken up the next day with Van's soul more intact than it had ever been, and a shadowy tattoo above her breast, over her heart. He'd found a cluster of golden stars over his own, but Lucy had assured that they didn't form any constellation she knew of. They'd been together since that day, and their feelings had morphed into full, real, recognizable love.

Lucy feared for how they'd change when they returned to society, but she put it out of her mind.

She placed a kiss on his full, wonderful lips, and turned back around.

About an hour later, they came into the ruins of an ancient city, and Lucy's entire demeanor changed. Van would have guessed that his Bonded (that's what Capricorn called it, anyway) would have lit up with wonder. She loved knowledge, had an insatiable thirst for information, and they'd literally just walked into a city that no one in recorded history knew anything about.

All he saw on her face, however, was unbelievable, heart-wrenching sadness, "Starlight…?"

She just shook her head of blonde hair, and walked forward, taking careful steps onto a ruined staircase and running her fingers along the stone, as if memorizing it. He decided he didn't want to make things worse by forcing her to speak about it, so silently followed after her.

The architecture was grand. Everything made of either marble or a dark, glass-like material he couldn't identify. Pathways lined with statues, but the forms he saw he couldn't recognize. Some looked like odd kinds of angels, shorter than most he'd seen, but they had tails. Others looked much the same, but without wings. Those always appeared to look sad, or angry, in some cases. And the farther they travelled through the massive stone city, he realized that the streets weren't empty. Skeletons were strewn about the place, here and there, as if somehow they'd all just dropped dead in the middle of what they were doing, and no one had thought to do something about the burial.

The more of those they passed, the more Vander's Starlight turned sad. Despairing, even. She looked as though she was… grieving.

"Stella…"

She didn't answer.

Finally, they came to a massive graveyard. An actual one this time, not the ruins of a city where he was now certain tragedy had struck. Each gravestone had another of those angels on it, and from the way they were so intricately carved, he realized how important burial rights must have been to these people. All the more concerning, when he considered how many he'd passed that still lay where they'd dropped dead hundreds of years ago.

In the center of the Necropolis, stood a massive, winged angel that bore a… striking resemblance to the woman he was following. The marble features etched in stone were nearly identical to the ones etched in his memory of his Bonded. The statue stood above all others, almost as if it was some kind of… protector.

"Alvareigha…" he heard Lucy whisper as she approached the very grave he'd been admiring.

She fell to her knees at the end of it, tears finally falling. He didn't have any idea what was happening, and she didn't look as though his presence was wanted, so he stood silently to her side. Allowing her to grieve, though he didn't have any idea why.

"These… these are my ancestors, Van. The Fae."

He was… very confused, but didn't say anything. She wasn't asking any kind of question. She was opening up to him and he was going to let her do so.

"My ancestor, Anna Heartfilia, she was a Fairy," she laughed bitterly at that, "Ironic, huh. Anyway, a black wizard - worse even than Zeref himself… he cursed them, the entire population of fae, to the mortality of humanity. Losing their connection to Earthland entirely. Anna, she was sent away from this place, to find a way to return them all to normal. She turned to the stars for guidance. Or so the King told me."

She was silent for a moment, wiping her eyes, "Alvareigha," she gestured to the grave in front of her, "Alvareigha Heartfilia. My great grandmother. Ruler of the Fae. She stayed behind to care for everyone, protected them when that same black wizard returned once he'd regained his strength, using their newfound mortality to his benefit and murdered them all with a single spell. She'd tried, with everything she had, to save her people. She'd taken the blast herself, but was overpowered in the end, and everyone died anyway," she let out a heavy sigh, trying to compose herself.

"Anna… she returned. After having gained the Spirit King's favor, just in time to see them all die."

Vander looked at her curiously, honestly feeling heartbroken over it himself, but couldn't understand how she'd be only the great granddaughter of a being who had died what couldn't be any less than hundreds of years ago.

She saw the question in his eyes, and answered it.

"Anna, the only survivor, went on to live as a human. She'd had no other choice, the curse couldn't be broken. And when she had a child, Layla, she sent her forward in time, using the eclipse gate, so that she might escape the evil mage who was still hunting her family."

"Layla, as in your mom? I thought that the whole thing was opened by her when the dragons came through…?"

Lucy nodded, "It was. The eclipse gate was only meant for those with ties to celestial beings to be able to use on their own. Mom's celestial magic didn't need support from the other timeline to make it through, just like Future Lucy didn't need help when she travelled back to help us years ago. She opened the gate years later, for the dragons, though," she agreed.

"So…. what are we doing here, love?"

She looked up at him and sobbed brokenly, "Alvareigha. Anna. Layla."

"... I don't understand."

"The Celestial Spirit King granted the Heartfilia line the only thing he could offer when the immortality that came with the Fae was stripped from them. Immortality in his own way, because the Fae had been the balance for light in the world, and losing that light would have meant destruction. They… became spirits."

"Wait, what?"

She nodded, digging at the ground around the base of the statue until she found something. Pulling it out, she showed him three objects clutched in her dirt-covered fingers. Keys.

"When they died, each of their keys found there way back to where their spirit-hood was granted. Here."

Vander fell to his knees beside her and pulled her into a crushing hug, "You're… you're not sad about this. These are… happy tears?"

She nodded, "This… all of this… it's… sad beyond belief. This is my family here, this whole city full of people that, in another life, I might have known. That might have been my family, my friends, my comrades. So yes, I grieve for them, but…" she pulled away, looking him in the eyes, "Is it so bad that I'm just happy to be able to see my mother again?"

He smiled down at her, wiping her tears from her cheeks, "No, Mia Stella, that's not so bad."


End file.
